Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Speaking at the Lean Software and Systems Consortium Conference in April

I'll be speaking at the Lean Software and Systems Consortium Conference, taking place in Atlanta from April 21st to 23rd.

My talk addresses the more egregious losses of productivity that come from working with HTML specialists in rapid startups, and how to shape the work, workflow, and team system to leverage the power of specialists without incurring the specialist tax.

Abstract:Web designers are highly-specialized professionals. We lose a lot of productivity due to the effects of this specialization, whether through rework, scrap work, relearning, or missed expectations. Rapid startups expect to be up and running within two months, from the start of development work to business launch. Web designers are critical members of web startup teams, and learning to deal with web design specialists is vital to a rapid startup’s ability to sustain its pace. This presentation talks about two web startups that applied lean thinking and pull and flow to this particular challenge, and the techniques and understanding that came from the experience.